I have waited a long time to write this post. I have so looked forward to this moment. I know, I know. Turnbull will be a harder opponent for Labor to beat at the next election, etc. etc. etc. But let’s just pause before we fight that battle and celebrate the end of the Abbott war. We never have to worry about the #OneTermTony campaign ever again, because Abbott never made it to one term. He is now officially just a blip on the landscape. He’s gone. His putrid ideological war is over. Happy dance!
I’m savouring this sentence: Abbott didn’t even last a term. Two chaotic, dysfunctional, vindictive, shambolic, dim-witted, ideologically irrational years as leader of this great country, proving day after day after day after day and sometimes more than once a day, that he was not competent enough for the job.
I know it’s not in good taste to constantly be saying I told you so. And I know everyone who reads this knows I told you so and all agreed when I said so, but we all did this by saying over and over again that Abbott is just not good enough. I said it from the day he beat Turnbull in a leadership spill at the end of 2009. I’ve been saying ‘Abbott’s not good enough’ for almost 6 years. It’s a long time to be outraged. But we maintained the rage and now we’ve won. Why do you think Abbott hates Twitter so much? Because we point out how shit he is at his job. And finally this opinion can’t just be called ‘electronic graffiti’ and has not just gone mainstream, it’s also infiltrated his own team. Finally now justice has been done. Abbott’s incompetence has resulted in him losing his job. Before he even moved into the Lodge.
With the end of Abbott, there’s lots of work to be done. The wreckage he has strewn is hurting the country in more ways to count. It will take more than two years to fix the damage of two years of Abbott, but at least we can start now and soon the Abbott stench will be gone. Some of us will prefer to forget the Abbott thing ever happened. Others might tell our children stories about the wrecking ball Prime Minister who ate onions and constantly embarrassed the country. Thankfully the story will be a short one and will have a happy ending. Today is that happy ending. All that will remain is a bad memory. A sad joke. Abbott is gone. Abbott the blip. Thank you all for your outrage. We did this.
Bad taste or not – please, please feel free to keep saying it!!!
He now qualifies as Australia’s seventh shortest term PM.
I’ve blotted out the memory already
Tony abbott achieved one momentous feat in his short term as prime minister – he fuelled the rise of the Independant media 🙂
more satisfying than a double dissolution, more satisfying than an election landslide. The fibs will never again be able to accuse labor of revolving door prime ministers. They created a poo pile that they ended up having to sleep in, one of hypocrisy, bile, racism, secrecy and outright lies. Malcolm is the labor prime minister to have when you cant have a labor prime minister, a claytons progressive. He will be harder to beat, labor can’t sit on it’s heels doing nothing waiting for the inevitable, they will have to challenge with policy, distinguish themselves from the gutter and stand for some true working class values. I see this as a good thing, with tony and his mob of catholic, retarded, flat earthers in the ministry gone, a Turnbull government might put some respect back into the game and force labor to be better than they are by setting the bar higher. Perhaps conduct unbecoming might be a new catchphrase and ministers judged on their genuine ethics and input rather than slogans and contraversiality.
We were fooled once shame on them (I wasn’t), to let them fool us twice would be our shame. Hold them to account Australia.
I’m having a celebratory glass (or three) of red. The relief and joy nearly caused a #winespill but all is good. I think we can give ourselves a pat on the back for the great SM campaign we maintained for a few years now. But most of all I would to thank the whole team at the AIMN for the persistence, intelligence and strength of conviction all this time. Well done ladies and gentlemen! Thank you!
The leader has changed but the rest of the crew are still there. Where can Turnbull find some like-thinkers and moderates in the ranks who will implement a more compassionate, reasoned and evidence-based view that looks to the future rather than to the past?
Well done AIMN. Poetic justice. Abbott doesn’t qualify for his pension. Icing on the cake.
Turnbull making ALP work is a good thing. I see only positives. Hopefully we will see them find their way again.
Rupert will be furious. He might suffer a stroke.
Someone please press the full flush button.
Hopefully Turnbull can bring some honour and honesty back into Australian politics.
the battle has been won but the war is stll raging – we now have to fight the next election. Keep up the good work AIM.
and 4 days short of a PM pension. Oh sweet revenge. Julia must be ecstatic
New faces – the same old corrupt COALition, but hopefully less science denialist and more able to fit in with the rest of the World at Paris. Kick them all out ASAP. We need to fight for a future and this is just a half measure.
I was torn until the result came through. Then, suddenly, I knew that a boil had been lanced and the country will heal somewhat now. I hope Rick Facer is right, and this will galvanise Labor to pick up their act. Because I do NOT want the LNP to continue after next election. And thank you, AIMN, for the truly independent thought which has contributed to this result today.
One slightly battered and bruised arse for sale….yeehaa he’s gone. Maybe he can open his own onion patch too.
So there is a change of leadership of the LNP. Now watch out as to whether anything else changes because the policies this mob have lumbered us with are something that we need to change. Will Turnbull have the intestinal fortitude to move back to a more centrist leader & change those regressive policies – I don’t think the party (or Murdoch & the rich end of town) will let him.
Best we all keep a very watchful eye on this man.
Gone before he can claim a PM’s pension… I like that. Gone with another “Fail” on his CV ..I like that, too.
Now let’s see the intecine Party warfare erupt between “Von Ribbentrop” Turnbull and his remnants of the “centre” and the now aggrieved IPA right-wing of this ruling rabble as they maul each other over what’s left of the cadaver Australis.
Now for the ship of fools that foisted this dangerous lying weirdo on us and supported him for a period beyond all reason.
‘We’ did nothing.
This is an unmitigated disaster. With Abbott the Liberal gangsters had a leader who could not conceal their turpitude.
Now they have one who can – as far as the reactionary bumptiousness of the Media could tell, or care.
The ABC in particular will be sickening.
This was always the way it would happen,except perhaps a few months early.
Were Labor prepared for this? Where is Mr. Camouflage tonight?
whilst it was anticipated the rabbutt would be a student for one term, it is our pleasure to announce he is taking a half term holiday.
Alphonse wrote: “Now for the ship of fools that foisted this dangerous lying weirdo on us and supported him for a period beyond all reason.”
They’re still out there- and now they’ve got better cover for advocating failed and dysfunctional neoliberal policies than ever. Not that many of them know any better, which is far from a consolation.
randalstella: +1
I sat there asking myself what I actually WANTED to be the outcome,and I thought I couldn’t decide. But then, just as aravis1 wrote, it was like having a boil lanced (not that I ever have, but you know …) – a huge flood of relief.
Yes, it’s perfectly correct to say that Turnbull is the new leader of THE BLOODY LNP, so how can anything be better ?
It’s better because Australia is no longer a laughing stock, that’s how.
When I recall how we could be proud of Rudd’s overseas travels and their meetings and discussions, I despair of the last almost two years, and writhe in embarrassment.
I am totally thrilled about the fact that this unmitigated bounder and idiot will not get the PM pension ! – DELIGHTED, almost beyond words !
Don’t forget that he managed to get us involved in a war – and some of our men are still committed there. Shame on him, shame on the Liberals. Remember Vietnam and bring our troops home. My partner, a Vietnam veteran, said before the last election: If Abbott wins we will be at war in his first term”. I wonder if Turnbull is man enough to reverse this.
Rather than see ing Turnbull ‘making ALP work’ I see him as giving them room to work. This was Abbott’s strategy: he was so vile that anyone slightly human was depicted by him as being weak. He was a very difficult man to engage in discussion. As for negotiation – impossible. I am not a supporter of Turnbull or his mob, but expect the discussion to be more civilised under his leadership
Tony who?
Analytically, I accept, and to an extent agree with the reservations expressed by randalstella. PM Turnbull will be much less clumsy with his plots and lies than Abbott was (a harder target).
However, I hold out some hope that this will raise the level of political discourse somewhat, with policy articulation favoured rather than relying on slogans and sledges. It also have the benefit of forcing the ALP into a bit of leftward shuffle rather than the inexorable rightward drift of recent years, otherwise. Labor will need to step up.
On a personal level, I am immensely relieved that I no longer have to refer to that bigoted, sexist, lying, sledging, irrational and contemptible cretin as the Prime Minister of Australia.
Interesting.
Do we now have a Labor leader that is further to the right than the Liberal leader?
The ALP is not going to be able to say they are just letting the shit happen anymore they are going to have to step up and take on the LNP.
Now is when Labor need a labor leader rather than a lib light leader.
How sweet it was to see that smug smirk taken off his face. This came out of nowhere last night, All one can say is good riddance to this embarrassment to the world of that PM. Now we may get a favourable reputation back. Hockey has gone, Bronwyn Bishop should die a slow death and disappear, as for this Foreign Minister, I couldn’t believe what someone said last night that she is one of the best FM Australia has ever had! I had to put my eyeballs back in as I believe what I had heard. What has that woman ever done to warrant such praise? All anyone ever saw of her was hiding behind Abbott nodding her stupid head.
Time for some leadership now, Labor. You’ve got away with having none for 2 years. Turnbull is by no means an overwhelming electoral asset but he won’t alienate the voters like Abbott has. No longer can Labor rely on the ineptitude of the PM to hand the prime ministership over to it on a silver platter.
SSM you beat me to it!
Why are we hearing so much from Jeff Kennett ?
@Corvus – you made a misspelling “the actual spelling is C-R-E-D-L-I-N not cretin. But well done none-the-less.
Yes, to all that, M-R! And after a short night’s sleep, I am feeling better about the prospects for getting rid of the whole foul lot at next election too. Because Turnbull is already known as a failed politician, who in spite of his intelligence, has no spine. And if he takes us to an election any time next year, we will have had time to see his inadequacy. Shorten did a video last night and I am hoping he will keep up the pressure now the Maggot is gone.
Another reason to cheer is that he fell 4 days short of qualifying for a Prime ministerial pension ! I know I shouldn’t be vindictive (Bwahahahaha!) but this is justice, we already have too many living former PM’s draining the public purse for life… he won’t be joining them 3:)
Don’t think so. From what I can establish, his pension as a former Prime Minister will be (approx) $307 000 a year. If he had served 4 more days then that would have risen to $327 000, an extra $20 000 a year. Then there’s all the extras.
I don’t think a lot of you people get it if it weren’t for the ALP and the others Blocking most of the LNP Cruel cuts and more cuts just think how much worse Australian people would be, I say get behind the party with the most heart imo.https://www.laborherald.com.au/politics/best-and-worst-of-the-parliamentary-week-5and5-3/
OR stick with the LIebrial party the party that widens the gap between rich and poor the party that causes the suicide rate to soar the party that causes the crime rate to soar the party that works for big corporatios you do go for it back the AH’s https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2817-right-wing-governments-increase-suicide-rates/
On a lighter note http://www.theshovel.com.au/2015/09/15/thousands-of-flags-to-lose-jobs/
To me Toxic Abbott was never accepted as my ‘Prime Minister’ either intellectually or emotionally. I always knew that he was a thug, a dullard, a stilted and desicated character whose own greed and hubris would most likely bring him down before he got a second term, and then the boil would be lanced. My praise and congratulations to all those who gave him a negative rating for thirty polls in a row. It was this that cut him down to size.
A toast. To the demise of the worst Prime Minister in Australia’s history. In the weeks to come we can ponder and act upon the implications but for now, we should allow ourselves to revel in the moment. It has been a long time coming. Cheers, everyone.
Cheers itsazoosue.
Turnbull will be hobbled by the Nationals and extreme right elements of his party/coalition. Ponderings on how that impacts his chances for a second term are being left for another day. Salute ! Chin chin! Cheers!
We are all very pleased to see that the wanker has been tossed out. To echo Gough Whitlam ” Well may we say Wanker’s off!”
Kizhmet, I agree Turnbull could well find himself wedged between his conscience and his party. I’ll bet he wished he was a member of the Labor Part right now; Prime Ministership notwithstanding.